Who shall receive legal services when not all can?

Triage and Justice for All, Pt. 2

As Erika discussed in a previous blog post, triage is integral to the delivery of legal services, and yet there is no research that demonstrates how to triage well in law. Triage is always important (because resources are always finite). But it is absolutely critical when resources are scare and stakes are high. Decades ago, James F. Childress, in the provocatively titled “Who shall live when not all can live,” laid out the moral and logical arguments for different conceptualizations of triage.

Childress was concerned with Scarce Life-Saving Medical Resources (SMLR), for example with the administration of penicillin during war time. How were doctors to decide who should receive this miraculous drug when it was in such limited supply? Give the drug to those who would benefit from it but not return to the battlefield, or give it to those who would return to the battlefield to fight (and perhaps die) there? Childress wasn’t impressed with a critical application of social values in determining triage- considering the biases and multitude of regional, religious, and other cultural differences within an area.